One of my favorite things to do is take bugs to classrooms. You will find that all eyes are on the mantises and not on you. With all the noises kids make during these events you will be struggling to get a word in between their fascinations, exclamations of fear and their teacher kindly and constantly telling them to settle down. The greatest challenge is not running out of time before you run out of bugs. But I\'ll share one warning with you...kids ask the toughest questions! It can be awkward trying to manage subjects like reproduction or biodiversity at a religious-oriented school, for example.
I usually begin with some short discussion of how I came to be interested in bugs (my backyard) and pop a bug out and discuss some of the basic body parts before beginning the bug by bug discussion of my live collection. Nothing makes an impact like letting the children handle bugs if the teacher (and individual students are up for it). It can take 5 minutes for everybody to get their turn with a single bug. And before you know it, you\'re out of time!
Hey, take your camera and ask the teacher to snap a photo of your presentation!
Here's me doing a few at the annual Bugguide.net Gathering this summer:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/316829
http://bugguide.net/node/view/303101/bgimage
And a teacher friend's classroom photo album:
http://www.insectgeeks.com/user/gallery/al...Phil/album_460/